How are new technologies impacting literacy?

Today’s teens have grown up zooming among hyperlinks in cyberspace and conversing in an online world of Twitter and text messaging where acronyms, assorted shortcuts and creative punctuation have redefined everyday discourse…

Experts figure that kids today read and write even more than previous generations. And they do so in a broader and more complex environment — though not always in academic ways.

The fire hose of online content, plus evolving media platforms, present new challenges for students — and teachers rushing to keep up with technology — as 21st-century literacies blend with traditional skills.

“I’m not going to say it’s a good thing or a bad thing,” says Elizabeth Kleinfeld, assistant professor of English at Metropolitan State College of Denver. “But it’s a thing for sure, and we have to deal with it in our classrooms, in our workplaces and in our relationships.”